UK Car Production Down: But Is It All About Brexit"
I receive many messages in my burgeoning email inbox. Some of them I don?t want to read because they bear no relation to what I actually do. I do not, for example, want to buy electrical parts from China, perfumes from Paris, and I don?t want to meet attractive girls from foreign lands. Well, in a sort of typically male lecherous sense I do, but the marriage contract and the prospects for my future health don?t allow for it.
I also get a lot of mail every financial quarter from motor manufacturers shouting from the rooftops that the last three months have been their best yet in terms of sales and profits; this includes European car makers like Volvo and Volkswagen. They must be doing this by means of economies of scale or something because, if the UK motor industry is anything to go by, business is not looking rosy. Worrying Statistics
Figures recently released show that UK car production once again declined in March, with demand falling by -13.3% year on year as the domestic market continues to slow down. Exports also declined, down -11.9% due to fluctuations in demand in some global* markets. In addition, some manufacturers were impacted by the adverse March weather* conditions which negatively affected production operations.
Overall, output in the first quarter of 2018 fell -6.3%, with 440,426 cars leaving production lines in total this year. Almost 80% of these were exported, and while demand from overseas custom...